


As if you have to ask

by androidkisser



Category: NieR: Automata (Video Game)
Genre: Comfort/Angst, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-30 10:12:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15749595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/androidkisser/pseuds/androidkisser
Summary: After deserting YoRHa to be with A2 some years ago, she and 2B look to the future, for what it may be worth.





	As if you have to ask

**Author's Note:**

> sort of back? just needed to write something familiar to get me out of a bad writing place, and thought I'd come back to my old faithful fandom. might have more chapters, maybe.  
> let me know if you liked it! (let me know if you missed me too bitch)

“You don't regret it, do you? Staying with me, I mean.”

“You ask this every year,” 2E replied, softly, pushing herself up against the damp trunk of a tree. “No, I don't regret it.”

“I couldn't –” A2 choked out, before finding her voice again, “I couldn't look after us like I wanted to. Like I said I would.”

2E looked down at her own body; almost five years of repelling YoRHa's pursuit forces had indeed taken their toll. Only a tattered mess of what was once some kind of white clothing remained, her ruined black battle attire long since discarded. She'd lost most of the dermal plating that made up the human-like skin on her arms, legs, and neck, and her face seemed to be following suit, peeling away in little patches.

“You couldn't have known how the situation was,” 2E whispered. “Neither of us could.”

They'd tried to get further away, out of the reach of YoRHa's strike zone, but it had turned out to be an impossible dream. The scraps of land they had been fighting over for almost a decade – whether against machine, or android – had turned out to be an island, in the end.

They were trapped.

“I thought we'd get help,” A2 went on, turning to face 2E. The top layers of 'skin' covering almost half of her face had been scorched off in an explosion almost two years ago, leaving a large section of the grey, charred skull exposed to the elements. She'd lost a fair section of her hair, too, leaving one side of her head decidedly smooth, but she elected to leave the rest long, for 2E's sake. The latter wouldn't hear any talk of cutting it short, or worse, off altogether. “I really did.”

“Anemone couldn't risk losing YoRHa as an ally,” 2E said. “She wanted to. You know that.”

“Yeah,” A2 murmured. “I know that.”

There was a brief silence.

“If you'd known how it was all gonna turn out, would you still have stayed?”

Another pause.

“Yes,” 2E replied, placing a now-bare hand on top of A2's own. “I told you, I don't regret it. You need to stop asking.”

A2 looked down at their hands, now a matching, dusty black, before lacing their fingers together.

“Yeah,” she breathed. “Guess I do.”

The light, cool rain was soothing; much of it couldn't make it through the thick forest canopy, but it was enough to keep their temperatures regulated without resorting to submerging their maintenance-starved bodies entirely in fresh water.

“How long do you think?” A2 asked, the fingers of her other hand running over the back of 2E's. She didn't have to go into any more detail for the other android to know just what she was asking.

“Ten, or so,” 2E muttered, a little bitter. “Maybe less, if YoRHa keep this up.”

“Yeah,” replied A2. “I figured around the same, too.”

“Mm. That's still ten more years together, though.”

“Please,” A2 scoffed, “as if you're gonna want to be around me when I look like I just rolled off the production line.”

2E frowned.

“You're still just the same as you were,” she said, her brow remaining firmly furrowed.

“Even Number Four thought it was important to look good,” A2 laughed, bitterly. There was no humour in it. “You can't seriously look at me, and mean that.”

“Then maybe she was just as shallow as the humans are,” 2E said, a venomous edge to her voice.

“Don't talk that way about –”

“Do you honestly think I'd waste my time thinking about something so inconsequential? If she fed you ideas like that, then I'll talk that way about her all I like,” 2E said, her grip tightening on A2's fingers.

“... Fine,” A2 conceded, the brief spark of indignant anger fading from her damaged features. It wasn't as if she would've said anything different, had she been in her position. “I just thought –”

“Then don't,” 2E stated, firmly. “I'm here because I want to be with you. There's no need to worry about irrelevant subjects.”

A2 smirked, then, a lopsided grin that somehow still managed to hold all of the playful wickedness. “Sounding more like your old self than you think, 2 **B**.”

2E lifted a hand to A2's face, running two gentle fingertips along the exposed ridge of her cheekbone. It was something A2 wouldn't stand for, usually – she didn't even like when the other girl _looked_ at the damage for too long – but she forced herself into stillness, for her sake.

“You're still you,” 2E whispered, resting her other hand on A2's shoulder.

“For now,” A2 mumbled into 2E's shoulder, as she was pulled into a loose embrace.

“You're scared,” breathed 2E. “I am, too.”

“Yeah,” A2 admitted. “I'm scared.”

2E began to run her fingertips through what was left of A2's hair, holding her closer against her. They fished for words in the pools of their own minds, desperate to come up with something that would alleviate the mutual air of dread between them, despite knowing full well that they'd find themselves at a dead end.

“Your hair's tangled,” 2E said, after a long silence.

“You're the one who made me keep it,” A2 said, pointedly.

“You like it when I do this, though.”

“Yeah, but I could still like it with ten inches less of it.”

Talking about trivial, banal things always seemed to help, at least temporarily. It was comforting to pretend things were more normal than they were – whatever 'normal' was supposed to be.

Of course, it was just that – temporary.

“Ten years though, huh...”

“Don't,” 2E said, in hushed tones. “Being honest is one thing, lingering on it is another.”

A2 brought her own hand up to 2E's face, as they parted, just a little.

“I hate what they've done to us,” she said, full of resentment as she met 2E's eyes. “I hate it.”

“It can't be helped,” said 2E, doing her best to keep her voice steady. “We did everything we could. You know they won't listen.”

“I'd _make_ them listen, if I – _ah_ , damnit –”

She winced in pain, fighting the urge to double over.

“Don't get worked up,” 2E hummed, reassuringly, placing a hand on the older android's stomach. “Please. You know your reactor isn't –”

“I know, I know,” replied A2. “Sorry.”

“We'll head out through the clearing tomorrow,” 2E whispered. “We'll go to the lake, and we'll take some time to clean ourselves up.”

A2 simply looked at her, her expression unchanging; dejected.

“I'll get the tangles out of your hair,” 2E went on, pulling her close again. “I'll make sure you know how much I need you.”

“So unfair,” A2 huffed, into the rough skin of 2E's shoulder.

“What is?”

“That you always know the right thing to say to me,” she replied.

“Well,” 2E began, slowly, “you do know we have a very similar personality type, don't you?”

A2 limply pushed her fist against 2E's side, letting out a reluctant giggle.

“You're an asshole,” she said, the laugh turning into a gentle hiccough. “You'll stay with me until the end, won't you?”

2E smiled, then – the first in what felt like years.

“As if you have to ask.”

 


End file.
